Boxes contained old school records, posters and photos dating to the 1800s.

Names such as Fluck, Weitzel, Scheetz, Fox, Ahlum and Benner appear on attendance rosters — the same surnames as many of the history teacher's students.

"It's amazing, the generations of families who stayed here," said Salansky, a Quakertown graduate whose family roots also run deep in the area.

Rosters from the days of one-room schoolhouses are among the treasure trove of memorabilia recently discovered at Quakertown High School, which itself dates back to 1956.

The boxes containing hundreds of old school board minutes, scrapbooks and student photographs had been gathering dust in a basement, largely unnoticed until the high school recently began to clear rooms in preparation for a $60 million renovation.

High school senior Tyler Stalletti and Quakertown resident Frank Licopoli, a former president of the Quakertown Historical Society, have been volunteering their time, sifting through the boxes to see what's inside.

"Some of the boxes were marked with dates, some weren't," Licopoli said. "We really didn't know what we had until we lifted the lid off the box. It was organized chaos."

It's not unusual for districts to have stacks of old documents. Under a 1949 law, for example, student records must be maintained for at least 100 years, the district said.

But in Quakertown's case, it's as though the district stumbled upon a giant time capsule.

There's a black and white photograph from a circa 1932 production of "The Miniature Lady Musical." It features young women in frilly bonnets and a young man in the center of the group, holding a huge top hat.

A student-made poster, likely from the 1950s, includes images of an old television set and women dressed in housecleaning aprons.

The caption reads, "The course of studies at the Quakertown Community Senior High School have progressively changed with the years."

Also uncovered, the district said, were minutes from the first meeting of the Richlandtown School Board, held in May 1891.

Even older is a book written in German that was published by the state Department of Education on Dec. 31, 1861. It's an inventory of all the state's public schools county by county, Licopoli said

The boxes have been moved to another basement room where Licopoli and Stalletti have been carefully organizing and grouping the mementos on shelves and on folding tables so they can be cataloged or even digitized for a wider audience.

Licopoli, a retired teacher who salvaged old records when he worked at the Wissahickon School District in Montgomery County, wants to see everything saved for future generations.

Salansky, who is helping in the preservation effort, said the artifacts have educational value.

"Kids often hate the town or school they came from. These items can remind them to feel pride for Quakertown," said Salansky.

Nicole McGalla, spokeswoman for the Parkland School District, agreed about the value maintaining old records, beyond what the state mandates.

Parkland has a whole room dedicated to architectural drawings of its schools and keeps historical items in the high school library and a storage room.

"You never know when it can be used at an event or put on display," she said.

Licopoli and Stalletti recently spoke to the school board, urging directors to find a way to preserve the items.

"What I hope happens is that the board will set aside a place for these things to be kept safe and maintained, and if not, that they would be donated to an organization, like the Richland Library, to care for them," Licopoli said.

The board agreed to consider forming an archives committee and invited Licopoli and Stalletti to attend the next facilities meeting for further discussion. .

Stalletti, who has been involved in saving artifacts found in other parts of the school, told the board that organizing the documents was a labor of love.

"I became interested in this because of the planetarium, where we found a few old papers. Then we saw all the boxes in the basement. I just didn't want all this to get thrown away," Tyler said.